Posted on October 1, 2007
With today’s high-tech lifestyle you can do essentially anything online, from shopping to studying, even dating. Anything, except sign up for an absentee ballot to vote.
Junior Heather Shuttleworth, chair of the SGA’s legislative action committee, and sophomore Alex Jerasa, director of government relations, are working on a petition for an online request option for absentee ballots for voters.
“I want them [the legislators] to bring it up to speed,” Shuttleworth said. “To make [requesting absentee ballots] more convenient for us and more accessible to us because that will show us that the legislators care about how we feel.”
In the document drafted to explain the intent of the petition Shuttleworth explained that the current process is lengthy where you have to mail in a request for an absentee ballot via mail, wait for the ballot to arrive, and then complete the ballot and mail it back.
Last year Shuttleworth wrote the bill presented to the SGA to lobby for the online request in Richmond. This year Shuttleworth wanted to make it a bigger project than it has been in the past.
“It affects all students,” she said. “Not just JMU; the entire young voting population.”
Jerasa said the online request will help everyone.
“I hope that through the efforts of James Madison Univeristy we’ll be one step closer to making the voting process more acceptable and much easier for all types of people to vote and voice their opinions,” he said.
Shuttleworth said that there has been a bill like this for a while, but it has never seen the floor during the general assembly legislature session in Richmond.
“Because they’ve never let it see the floor, we’re trying to make it a bigger deal,” she said.
She thinks one of the reasons it has never been considered is because legislators are scared of internet fraud. Jerasa said because voting will not happen online this will not be the case.
“All you’re doing online is applying to get the ballot,” he said. “You’re eliminating the time it takes in the mail and making sure everything is send to the right place, there’s not going to be any fraud because there’s no voting through the process. The voting is still on paper and still double checked by the registrar.”
They began collecting signatures during the third week of Sept.
Shuttleworth said she was surprised by the number already collected. She said almost everyone has filled out a voter registration form or absentee ballot request form has signed the petition, and estimates over a hundred signatures.
“There’s been a lot of positive reaction,” Shuttleworth said.
Shuttleworth said she hopes to reach 2,000 signatures, which would be just over 10 percent of the population. With 10 percent of the JMU population the petition would be eligible to be turned into a Bill of Opinion which Shuttleworth said may be a possibility.
“What we have to say will hopefully stay with the legislators,” she said.
Freshman Nadia Khan agreed it would make things easier and hopefully get more people to vote.
“I think they should be able to do it because there are a lot of things that keep people from voting,” she said.
The petition is available in the SGA office.
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